, 1887-04-21

on which Luke was ~ - IN
born June rs, 1916, @k-A "
Is III the midst of WIZ II
the finest land in ES~
the country and but q
!. !" :: y. ]. J: ]. 81. q: =. !. : !.
a short distance - /kAA
from tie celebrated zEM4N ! &zITssgN
stock farms of Har-H|I##ANzsZ SN
per and Alexander. 1+zzSS7 Ss3E ut
He was graduated
in medicine at the LUKE P BIAKBrRS
age Of Is at the Pennsylvania university and
entered upon the practice of his profession in
Lexington. When he was hut 10 he DISPLAYED
that noble spirit of self sacrificing hero
/ ism which afterward won him the en-
viz! IL a0palati0n Of "the phiilnt'rop-
ist.' Cholera appeared in Versailles. the
county seat of Woodforl county, anI the
daily mortality was frightful. a nu,a.!,er
OF resident physicians died and others fied,
when DIR. Blackburn alone for DAYS an -vv,.rd
he call of distress for medical aid He after
ward removed To Versailles and in 1913 was
elected to the state legislature. Three years
afterward lie took up his residence i'll NatcheZ
Miss, where he soon acquired q large and
lucrative practice and became well known
throughout that part of the south tributary
7 to the Mississippi river. In 1878, while he was
health officer at Natchez, he built at his own
expense, during the prevalence of yellow fever
at New Orleans, q hospital for the benefit of
the suffering boatmen for whom the general
government made no provision From this
institution arose the system of marine hos
pitals III the various parts of the western
rivers, which congress adopted by pernIa-
nently establishing the Natchez hospital OF
the recommendation and request of DR..
Blackburn. 1t was during the following
years, while he held the position of SI-E - in
he state and national hospitals, that Iie al
vauccd the theory of exemption from Asiutic
cholera by the Use of pure soft WAGER, and
made known his belief in the infection of
yellow fever, in controversiOn of the geElr-
ally accepted theory of contagion. These
raised a multitude of opponents, who VT, t. IA
good deal of science and idicu.r i'm their at
| tackS on what they called The Old Woman
! Doctor" but few physicians will he fuInd
now who disagree with these theories.
~
His wife, who was Miss Ella Guest Boswell,
daughter of Dr. Joseph Boswell, of L.xiug-
ton, died in 1865, and while visiting the
principal hospitals of Europe in 1851 he met
in Paris Miss Julia NJ. Churchill, his present.
| wife, whom he married OH their return -
America At the breaking out Of the civil
war he was living in New Orleans, and wiki
his frient, j. 4. Quitman, afterward a dis
| tnguished general i'll the Confederate army,
was among the first advocates of the socrSs' -
| Of the south. He was attached as surgeon /
the staff of Gen. Sterling Price. and carried
with him an appropriation of $4,000 b. the
legislature of Mississippi for the benefit of
sick and wounded soldiers of that state. A
commission to superintend the furnishing of
supplies for blockade runners necesSitatel his
sojoun in Canada. and thence in 1864 lie re-
TO tI,a 10 TpI, IL
cused while here of an attempt to spread a
scourge throughout the north by sending in
fected clothing of smallpox and yellow fever
patients through the lines The ac.ISatiou
though pronounced an infamous caldmpy by
Dr.. Blackburn, excited bitter crimin ItiJn AMI
rccfiElnatiOn III the newspapers of the tTo
sections. 1t was revived about five years
ago when, in support of his innocence aud
good will to the people of the north, the
doctor referred to his gratuitous services
rendered the afflicted at the request of the
| may or of Now York. in which city he was
then visitor, during the yellow fever plague
in 1865 at Fort Washington, on Long Isnnl
In 1867 he went TO Arkansas and engage
in planting, but in 1873 again resumed t.
practice OF medicine i'll Louisville, Ky.
When the terrible yellow fever scourgr Of
1873 destroyed the inhEhitamiS OF western
| kentucky and Memphis, Tenn, by the fipu
sands, DR.. Blackburn was the first pIiys-,'iaI
to respond TO the appeal for help. His ser
vices ;hure called forth the highest praises
from the press, the pulpit and tiIc s'eope, AHA
in 1873 brought him the Democratic H...'i'a-
tiGn for governor ON the first hal.oi f'n''u,r
opposition. He was elected to That ai.!I '.i
by vote of 125, ,19o, over the vote of 81 1,<
given Walter Evans, the Republican cs:rsl4-
I,fa or- ti,.,D n
ocratic majority obtained by James ]. N
Creary in 1915 over his opponent, i'!'iSe joan
NJ. Harlan, now associate iu tice of the
United States supreme court. Ca his entrance
into Office Governor Blackburn found Inc
peuitentiary at Frankfort crnw.je,i ia'Nod
its capacity, its sanitary condition horn 'ing
and til treatment of the prisone. cruei, All
without check or restraint on the lessee. I
press h Talded it over the country as Tie
Black Ole of Kentucky" Governor Black
ouTl, moved by his characteristic impulses,
at once & tcrIniued to remedy this great evil.
He denlri ! d of the legislature that it maize
-Ome prog ision for the excess of prisoners
and institute an improved system of ni;!:l'iG',-
ment, threatening. i'll the event of ta!irrc, to
dispense such Wholesale use of the paIdonI'g
power as would practically empty the pei
tentiary. A resolution was thereupon passed
recommending the pardon OF mnety-siS o!
the most deserving convictS, and an act fol-
iONed III changing Tile system from te i"SS'7
hip to the wardenship, which has since
.liSed the prison to a rank among the best
pnducted and conditioned in the county.
rs message also getIuimated the Eddy VI e
.rauch prison, now nearing completion. lie
-Jycrnor and his excellent wife, who heartily
) )eratcd with him in al his ''''.'0ti' -
mo- cr,,-- :, gave tie pl on their especial
c,,ra. Vi ling it almost daily and institutinga
SUNDAY school ami other adjunctS pronotlye
OF wholesome and effective means OF working
= reformation among the inmates.
During his administration, in the spring OF
lsS:. ne made his first public confession of
-,.iLh ia salvation through Christ. The noun
a IL evangelist, George .. Barnes, was hold
rrss a series of meetings i'll Frankfort, and
41iid the penitents who walked down the
s;~o To tn. front row at the tpne of the Hood
i ina religious lcryor was srcIfthe gray haired
al uf rII., governor of Kentucky. Instantly,
nlIIc tears sprang 10 The eyes of the conSrega-
5iun a great thromg arose and moved after
him That smOnth lie was received INTO
Christ Episcopal church in Louisville, Rt
Rev T. L. Dusti-v, Ii. D. bishop OF the
/. ese, admiuis' nrir.. th' ~ 't'amel:t
WILLIAM Il. NEwEALL, JR-